ADcademy website goes live!

All singing, all dancing, brand spanking new ADcademy website has gone live this morning - head over to www.publicis.co.uk/adcademy to check it out!

Hi folks,
Our shiny new website has encountered some techinal difficulties and will be up properly in early january.
However, the new application has been uplaoded and is ready to be downloaded.
Visit http://www.publicis.co.uk/adcademy/ to get started, The deadline is the 1st February 6pm.

Good luck and happy christmas.

G

Do they know its Christmas?

Here at Publicis they certainly do! The festive season kicked off with a bang last Wednesday at our staff Christmas party. It was an epic night filled with cocktails, canapés and frolicking around on a vodka luge. It took a good day or so for the dust to settle and the hangover wounds to be licked clean. But I think I can speak on behalf of all the grads when I say that no seriously career damaging moves were made.

But the festivities did not stop there; we have been busy collecting and wrapping presents to give to the Depaul trust, a charity that helps young people who are homeless, vulnerable and disadvantaged. We have been running around the office ‘Festive Fleecing’ our colleagues for donations. These have ranged from people bringing in old clothes and food stuffs to giving money. We have been taking the money to Primark and bought tons of woolly jumpers and snug jackets which we have wrapped up and put under the tree. It has been amazing to see everyone get behind this great cause and the amount of stuff we have collected will really make a difference.

Its beginning to look a lot like christmas....

As new grads we take a lead role in running "Publicious" which is basically the social society for the Agency. Our usual role is to organise events and sporting encounters btu we have taken a charitable approach to our Christmas celebrations.

We work for the Depaul Trust, a charity for homeless 18-24 year olds which also runs a couple of hostels. The idea is to gather as many presents under the tree in reception via donations from the agency. This however has left us with a lot of wrapping, which you can see Giles and Sarah getting involved in (at this point I would like to point I gave up wrapping as my standards were deemed not up to being placed under the agency christmas tree)

It is nice to do something that is such for such a good cause, however we do have some fun planned as well. The agency can expect a visit form our old friend St. Nick soon...

No Cigar

We were given the chance to show our creative credentials for a fortnight up on the fourth floor. Split into two groups, and donning our wacky shirts and hats, we moved into our own offices complete with Macs and a ton of crayola.

We were given actual creative briefs on various projects such as Ballantines, Renault and Buxton. Working to tight deadlines, with distractions such as the pool table and playstation 3, we realised that there s more to being a creative than meets the eye. After lots of brainstorming and creative bashing, we managed to piece some ideas together in the form of Direct Mail, TV and Press.The placement was a great insight into how the idea of a campaign comes to life. Alas after presenting the work, there was an affirmed ‘ valiant effort no cigar’from the creative chiefton.

McCautious dons a creative hat

What we do in post production, echoes in eternity....

Last week saw the completion of our T.V production training and a school trip style excertion to The Mill, a post production house where they add all the final bits and pieces and crazy CGI to videos. The Mill may perhaps be the zenith of cool, in the reception sat an Oscar for their work on Gladiator (hence the shameful play on a famous quote in my title) and around the office there was work going on ranging from Music Videos to Ads. What you gain from visiting these kinds of places is the level of detail and skill that goes into creating the work that you eventually see on the television. That is the great thing about working in an agency, you never leave the process at any point you are there from inception to delivery.

Smell my chees you mother

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NUoiW-0wBc

During my three week placement on the fast track hub I got asked to go to a photo shoot for some press ads that were being done for Saint agur delice. A soft blue cheese.

It was amazing to see the precision that the photos for these ads require. There was about 7 people there in all each with their own roles. There was a senior photographer, a junior photographer, a creative, an art director, a production manger, me and a food technician who was basically a make up artist for the cheese. She spent the day, moving the little areas of blue cheese around, and smoothing its surface, creating the perfect texture.

I spent the morning there, and had a great time; I even got a cheesy lunch.

Out with the Old in with the …who

So as the leaves begin to fall, winter sets in, and the time has come for the grads to pass on the torch. Davina, Jenny, Paddy and Ian have grown to wise old account men. Now, busy in their placements they have handed the blog over to the new kids on Baker Street:

We are
Charlotte ‘Cautious’ McConnell
Giles ‘Sickboy’ Stevens
Christopher ‘Boyband’ Boyton
Katie ‘Planny’ Craig
Sarah ‘Cookiemonster’ Carolin

This is our blog, recording the exciting and challenging year ahead of us at Publicis

No end of play for Ian…

When others go to sleep, Ian starts his second job. A syndicate consisting of him, Sam - who you may have sporadically encountered on this blog (a.k.a. Sam "The Guns" Brown) - and Phil - our intern on Procter&Gamble - has started something that can only be described as a genius invention: a society for even more fun and social bonding at work, PUBLICIOUS. This society will bring us many good things, for example fortnightly caption competitions with great prizes, "Thirsty Thursdays" hosted by different hubs every month, and sports teams that are being trained up for the Olympics in 2012. In short: while the climate is getting grimmer all around us, Publicious will add a little spark to our every day and hopefully ignite some heated conversations.

Entertainment: Wouldn't you leave it in these

capable (if slightly freaky) hands?

Nobody stays alone at Publicis on Valentine's Day

At least not if you are working at Publicis Dialog! Why, you ask, is One-to-One Marketing not a lonesome art, full of distorted egos, rivalry and has every man fighting for himself? Not with us. Our agency encourages bonding, and the thought that anyone could remain lonely on Valentine's day sent shivers of pity down the spines of our Senior Management. Their sympathetic nature led them to initiate a "Blind Date" night on Thursday and and saw them flying in the mother of all matchmakers, Cilla (picture altered for privacy reasons), to bring our few willing and countless unwilling singles together. Like the stern but gracious fairy she is she pursued her given task relentlessly and in complete disregard of obstacles like marital status, height or age differences, forever staying true to her principle "Only love counts" and it is found in the most unexpected places.


Unfortunately (or some may say: thank God), the whole spectacle ended before me and Ian could win a romantic date at Blandford's Greasy Spoon - although Ian did have all his answers prepared. I guess we will have to wait for the next year to start our little romance. Until then: let's concentrate on THE WORK my little cupids!

Pictures courtesy of the Daily Mail online and tiscali

Nobody thought it was ever going to happen...

but I finally did it. I graduated (proof attached). This entailed a whole weekend of mayhem in the small university town of Poitiers where I so effectively pursued my Master's. It was amazing! So please, dear students, follow my example and finish up your course so that you can take up a job that is even more fun than uni: advertising. Hopefully with us of course.

All the best

Jenny MSc. Barthe

I love single-use ads.

A lovely one-off ad released yesterday by DDB:

Obama-rama.

Today, the US will have a new President, its 44th President and its first African-American President.


The former Governor of New York, Mario Cuomo, once said: "You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose". Today, this line is repeated in reference to the impending presidency.


So how will the inauguration of President Obama affect the world of advertising? Not an easy question to ponder. Perhaps a lease of new life for positive, genuine adverts? Even enough to inspire us cynical Britons? Perhaps, in the protection of the ‘little fish’ in the US, they will produce a greater diversity of advertising?


Perhaps Cuomo’s quote will become true for the advertising world as well. That anyone who isn’t market leader will produce brilliant creativity that will be like marketing poetry; that those who lead their markets will write the rules. Let’s hope not.


No matter the perceived strength of a brand, even as the best in any sector, it still has to strive to maintain that position. The world now is too complex, too dismissive and too ruthless. A slip-up from Obama and the critics will swarm and the satirists will mock. Brands are given the same treatment.


Then again, maybe nothing will change. Inspirational as he is, he is thousands of miles away…in the land of dreams.....(cynical British, can’t be inspired by genuine optimism, don’t know what you’re talking about…)

Miss Eager Beaver at work

My first success: We produced a so-called "Guard book" for SaBRE, in which all the campaigns we have ever made for this brand are collected - very useful especially for new people who want to get an overview of what the brand is all about. Making a Guard book first sounded pretty straight-forward to me, but there is actually quite a lot of work required: The account team compiles a list of all work created, gets all the digital files together and provides these to the Campaign Director. The Campaign Director has to book time in the studio so that they can create layouts of all the mailing packs. They will also ensure these have the correct resolution and will then produce print outs.

The challenge in this I found is to coordinate peoples' schedules, as people are in and out of meetings and creatives are often out on shoots. Anyways, thanks to the great team I was working with we got it all done in a few days and the final Guardbook was given to the client.

After successfull completion of this mission I am now off to my next project: the monthly competitor analysis for Zurich insurance. I will keep you in the loop about anything remarkable or unexpected I encounter on my journey. So long, dear readers, take care!

What Ian, Davina and Paddy don't want you to know...

These three sneaky grads have tried to keep the most exciting Publicis-event of our winter completely hushed up! I am appalled. Luckily for you I have managed to snatch some photos from Davina's camera and will report here about our little Business-trip to Paris - in all juicy detail.

Here you are treated to a rare picture of Ian in real life, not the tea-making sunnyboy you may know him as from the agency: as soon as Paddy falls asleep on the Eurostar, Ian grabs all his food and does not stop munching till Paris Montparnasse (which is even more meaningful since the train stopped en route for 2 hours). And they say I am the food-junkie!

On our first night we found this lovely (ok, the boys called it "airy-fairy") little bookshop/bar which we spent a fair amount of our hard-earned Euros in.




The next day it was all about sightseeing (or shall I call it "posing"?). Please note Ian's broken arm which to Paddy seemed a fair punishment for the stolen food. Paddy later admitted he may have gone slightly overboard with his reaction.



This is Davina doing a first (of many) shoot for her audacious proposal to Garnier the next day - the woman seriously suggested to the French Garnier-team that Davina McCall be replaced with Davina Hall, can you believe this?



Please note the professional photographer next to me who is braving the Champs Elysee traffic in order to get a piece of these yummy models and their perfectly natural pose!

Ian and Davs were not the only ones that got on well: Paddy and my sister soon discovered they had a shared passion for beer (and French men, but I won't get Paddy to admit this - yet).



While most of us had to stick to beer the whole night because Paris was intent on ripping us of our last cents, some of us stuck to cocktails the whole night - resulting in some shaky midnight-midstreet posing like the above!



Finally, the real reason we came to France! Oh no, wrong photo!



Yes, this is the right one! The real reason we went to Paris was to visit our Publicis France Headquarters in order to do a case study on Garnier - and to have a look at the amazing agency building situated directly on the Champs Elysee - about Ian's arm's-length from the Arc de Triomphe!

Thanks to the great team at Publicis France we had a very enjoyable and instructive workshop and an excellent lunch at the exquisite Publicis restaurant. My special thanks go to my sister Frieda who let us stay at her fantastic apartment and to Sira who gave me some life-saving instructions to the airport. (This did not stop my plane from being 5 hours late, but left me with the great feeling that this time at least my delay was utterly not my fault).

The end of the beginning, not the other way round.

So, our three months of whirlwind tours, handshakes and important introductions has come to an end. Now we have been split up and sent to different parts of the building to fend for ourselves.

Jenny is doing her Dialog placement for SaBRE. Davina (Hall as well as McCall) is working on the above-the-line Garnier account. Patrick is doing his first placement with the Army team making TV, radio and posters and I am working for Dialog on the Renault team.

Responsibility now rests on our heads alone and we can't just blame everything on Jenny anymore but on the flip-side, it gives us all the chance to show why we are employed here and I for one am relishing the challenge.

As well as our new accounts, we are also getting involved in new business, contributing to this super-fantastic blog and helping with all the graduate applications. If you haven't already applied, the dealine is February 1st so get thinking and good luck!

New year, new (immense) responsibilities...

While other people slowly recover from their NYE-excesses, work has already caught up on me with full power - much to the enjoyment of the industrious soul buried deep within me.

For the first four months of 2009 I am working in Publicis Dialog on the SaBRE account, an MOD campaign to support Britain's Reservists and Employers. We create communications that help increase employers' goodwill towards Reservists. This task is particularly sensitive at the moment, as the general public are not wholly supportive of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan but also because businesses have to survive in the current economic downturn without their Reservist employee. Within this climate its vitally important to remind employers of the contribution of their Reservists and their own business to the positive actions of the armed forces around the world.

Please find below a piece of communication that I think illustrates this very well - you may have already been impressed by the similar newspaper-ads we ran in September 2008.

The final countdown

This week, Ian and I are working on the Army account. The Army team are one of the most integrated accounts in Publicis, and this week we are working with the digital part of the team. You can see some of their great work by visiting http://www.publicis.co.uk/adcademy/, and click on case study.
Ian and I got to help with brainstorming for a new project’s creative work yesterday, which was great fun. Other than that we have been analysing how the different regional armyjobs websites have performed over the past few months since their launch, and going to lots of meetings to see how the Army team work.

We have also been helping to prepare some 2008 year in review materials for the Army. The weeks before Christmas are busy as many of the accounts have year end reviews with clients and/or internally. In addition, retail accounts will have a Christmas shopping media push which may require new creative.
And so the end of our 3 months training draws to a close. It’s been a fantastic learning experience and we have been able to meet a large number of the people who work in Publicis, Modem and Dialog. We are off to Paris this evening, for a long weekend before visiting the Publicis HQ on the Champs Elysee on Monday. We can’t wait!
In January, we start on our new accounts – the first of our three rotations for 2009. I will be spending 4 months in Garnier, Jenny will be working in Publicis Dialog on the Sabre account. Ian is heading to Renault as part of the Dialog team, and Patrick is going to be working on the Army.

Renault Shoot

During our week in production, we got to go to a Renault Megane shoot near Bedford. Whilst we were generally there to observe and learn, we also got taken around the Milbrook tracks at top speed by a driver. The Alpine circuit was particularly wild, and we found out that the Aston Martin crash from Casino Royale was filmed there. Fortunately, we made it back in one piece (although Jenny did get into the driving seat and try to drive at one point).

Training galore!

As a member of the IPA we have to fill in CPD (Continuous Professional Development) logs, and while this sounds pretty dull, filling it in yesterday got me thinking about how much training we’ve had over the past three months. The first two weeks of our training ranged from ‘how to order a courier’ to ‘how to write a good creative brief’. We have had a lot of exposure to senior management, who have given us their insights on everything from data planning to how to win new business.

We had six weeks of IPA1 training in October/November. Every Thursday evening we met lots of the other grads from other agencies, had talks from important advertising people such as legendary Jeremy Bullmore, and in the final week had to present for 5 mins per team on "What are the conventions holding the advertising industry back, and what are we going to do about it." We learned a lot, and I’m sure we will bump into many of the people we met again.

Two weeks ago, we had a one day course with two senior planners here at Publicis. The course was "Strategies to ignite conversations." This helped to de-mystify what strategy is, and how we can use it to get people talking about the brands that we work for. It was a great course, and it’s nice to learn from experts in the field.

We have also had training from the wonderful Tish on presentation skills, and how to persuade people. Add to this a good dose of powerpoint and excel, ASA training and Clearcast training, and we really have no excuse for not being ready for our first placement in Jan!